Night Watch
The Night Watch is an informal Chapter composed of Adepts who have committed themselves to watching over their neighborhood and protecting it from supernatural threats. Loosely organized into individual Watches, they form a regional first-responder network of Adepts to crimes perpetrated by beings who lie outside secular justice. Facts: -The Night Watch has existed down the centuries in various forms since the basic idea behind the Chapter is a universal need among communities who house Supernaturals. -Known Night Watches go all the way back into prehistoric times, when individual villages or towns would post guards to keep watch by night. In medieval times, kinds and other officials would take great pains to appoint only the best to help ensure law and order. -Rembrandt's painting, The Night Watch, is believed to have given the name to the modern incarnation of the Chapter. It depicts a group of Dutch citizens organizing themselves to watch over their native city by night. -The Night Watch, simply put, is an organization of Adepts who take it upon themselves to police their own neighborhoods for Supernaturals who may pose a threat to its citizens. Traditionally, each neighborhood is home to a specific 'Watch' which is a small team of Adepts who work together to patrol the neighborhood by night and to monitor events in the area for signs of a rising threat. -The Night Watch is composed of Adepts from many Orders, but it is particularly associated with the Order of Judges and the Order of Enforcers. These two rather potent Chapters and their patronage help to ensure that the paltry forces mustered by the Night Watch, essentially just concerned citizens, at least have some serious muscle to call upon in times of genuine need. -The Ruling Orders are also rather keen on the Night Watch. The Order of Priests closely favors the Night Watch, since churchmen tend to be very close to the people they minister, its ecclesiastical members often working as organizers within the Chapter. Kings favor the Night Watch because they require law and order to maintain their rule, and the Seneschal understand that unruliness in society tends to be bad for business. -There are no hard rules about how the Chapter organizes itself. Each neighborhood is expected to organize its own Watch, and its members must figure out for themselves how best to operate within their own unique circumstances. -It is understood that the Night Watch is not a paramilitary group. They aren't supposed to stalk the night, seeking out evil to crusade against. They are concerned citizens, keeping a watchful eye out for anything that could pose a risk. Once they locate a potential problem, they alert the rest of the Watch. Once the rest of the Watch has arrived, they can work together to deal with the problem in a way that best suits the community. -The Night Watch is not restrictive in terms of membership. Members of the Night Watch are allowed to hold membership in other Chapters. In fact, the Night Watch favors it, since further connections gives them more opportunity to call on other resources should they need to. Intergroup Politics: The idea of starting up or serving within a Night Watch might sound exciting at first, but it comes with its own struggles. Chief among them, and probably the biggest internal bane that the Chapter has always suffered from, is the internal conflict generated by having Adepts of wildly divergent Orders and lifestyles try to work together for extended periods of time. Adepts tend to be highly individualistic people and when you try to have Adepts from very different, sometimes conflicting, Orders or Chapter affiliations work together, it can quickly lead to heated arguments. Differences of opinion, politics, religion, or just basic lifestyle can lead to divisions within a Watch, hampering its ability to focus on native threats and leaving their neighborhood exposed. In most cases, internal strife is often the result of select individuals who, whether from good intention or not, are proving to be the source of the conflict. Expulsion of said individuals is often enough to restore the Watch's unity. However, in severe cases, it has sometimes been necessary to split a Watch into two smaller Watches. This last practice is frowned upon since having multiple Watches in any single neighborhood can lead to questions of validity. One Watch may declare itself genuine and any other operating in its territory to be an imposter. Such situations have happened before. Patroling the Night: One universal feature of all successful Watches is that they routinely patrol their neighborhood by night. This is the true source of adventure for telling a story about Adepts within the Night Watch. Night time, the time of Luna, is always a time of mystery and the thrill of the unknown. Members of the Night Watch have a reason to explore the night, and a reason to keep finding stuff there. Remember this when you decide to write or role-play as a member of the Night Watch. Category:Law Category:Order Category:King Category:Church Category:Seneschal Category:Chapter